Páginas

31 August 2014

In my family we are Apple lovers. We all have Apple products, which means we all pretty much have the same cords. I started doing this becauseI thought it would make my cords look cuter, but it ended up being a must-do when I noticed my family kept taking my cords, and sometimes changing mine for other ones that were about to die, as if I wouldn't notice.

What I did is I painted the ends of the cords with nail polish. Easy as that. For this one, I used a bright pink nail polish and some glitter nail polish on top.

I hope you like this idea, and make sure you show me if you try to do it!

29 August 2014

I used to absolutely hate Back to school season. Summer coming to an end is already depressing enough. Last thing we need is for back to school commercials to come up on tv as we try to make the most of those last few days we can spend doing nothing but sitting on our couches, watch tv, use our computers, sit on our beds...

But there as much as I hate those commercials, I just love back to school posts and videos. I don't even know why, but I love them. I know I'm a bit awkward, but... that's the truth. And right now all my back to school preparations are basically packing for Belgium. I already have a lot of clothes I want to take with me so I can't do any back to school shopping or DIYs or anything fun. But I wanted to do a back to school post too, so I decided to share with you my college essentials.

Agenda

My agenda is my life-savior. I have everything written on it: from exams and projects, to birthdays, blog posts, plans with people... everything! My memory is... nonexistent so I rely on this completely. I've been using the same color code since high school and it's been working pretty well for me. If you're curious, this is what I use:

Blue: Birthdays

Green: Exams (because green is the color of good luck)

Yellow: Random things related with University

Pink: Plans

Purple: Projects

Orange: Blog (this one is new)

Colors

I gave you a little spoiler describing my agenda, but I'm a fan of using colors. I have colored highlighters, pens, post-it's, papers... I like to use colors to highlight the most important things and to brighten up my notes to make studying a bit less boring.

Post-it notes

Or may I say "colorful post-it notes"? This is another thing I use for EVERYTHING! I use tiny ones as bookmarks, or to write things on my agenda that are very important so writing them in its color is not enough, or when the date of something may change, because I don't like crossing things out.

I use bigger post-it notes to write things I forgot to add or to summaries the most important things in my notes, seeing them in another color helps me focus on what's truly important, and the reduced size of the post-it note makes sure I don't write anything but the most important stuff on them.

Water

Well, human beings need water. To keep hydrated, and avoid those super uncomfortable moments when you're very thirsty and can't stop coughing in the middle of a class.

Hair ties

How many times have you read or been told that you should study in a tidy place? Well you shouldn't only get rid of any distractions from your desk, but also from any distractions in general. And these include your hair. When I'm working on something important or need to concentrate a lot, I need to put my hair away so it doesn't bother me if it gets in my face, or so I won't get distracted by it and start playing with it. I always need to have a hair tie in my wrist.

Music

I don't need to explain why I love music, do I? Music is always the best solution. You're going to need some relaxing moments and music... music is music. Who could live without it?

Sugar

Sugar stimulates the brain and helps you think better. Eating a million pounds of sugar is definitely not good, but eating a few before an exam is! Don't cut it out of your life because you're going to need it.

Sleep

Sleep is very important. I'm always super busy and I don't sleep as much I should. Maybe that's why I know not sleeping is definitely not good for you. You're much more productive if you sleep enough. Trust me, not sleeping enough is not going to help you at all.

Question of the Day

Which are your college/high school/school/whatever essentials?

Note. I also decided to use this post to make a little experiment. My camera is very old and heavy and takes A LOT of space so I don't know if I should take it to Belgium with me, so I did this whole post with my phone's camera because I wanted to see how I'd do next year without a camera.

25 August 2014

As I was doing my Makeover Mondays series, I started to get asked quite a lot about blog design tips, so since I no longer have the time to design your blogs myself, I decided to make this super extensive post for those of you who want to give your blogs a brand new look.

I'm going to share with you some pretty basic (and hopefully useful) tips and some of my favorite resources and tutorials.

Today I'm showing you the little makeover of my Makeover Mondays series, at least for this summer. However, I decided to do one more thing for you, which is... THE BIG GUIDE OF BLOG DESIGN. I prepared a pretty extensive post with a few blog design tips, resources, and tutorials so you can give yourself a blog makeover!

And now... let's talk about the makeover I did. Last week's winner was Monica of Brunette in Black. And this was the description she left:

Blogging has been a passion of mine since 2009 and this year I wanted to take it further. I wanted to share what I love, inspire people and be inspired, to share a little bit of myself with the rest of the world.
I would like to win the makeover because I want my blog to have something unique and special, the personal image of the blog itself and me.

She asked me to try to incorporate a little illustration she found online on the blog design, and I struggled a bit at first since I didn't know how to, but this is what I came up with...

All good things come to an end, and I wish you thought Makeover Mondays was a good thing. Good or bad, that's it for this summer. I loved getting to do your blogs, and I wanted to thank you all for trusting me to do this for you. I hope you all enjoyed this!

24 August 2014

I don't know why, but I just can't throw bottles away. I always think they're too cute and just want to keep them forever. So today I bring you some ideas on what to do with them for those of you who have the same problem.

Fill them with candy

You can fill them with small candy like m&ms or gummy bears, or with candy that sticks out.

Paper stars

If you don't know how to make a paper star, it's actually very simple. You can watch a video here. You can even add a motivational quote inside each star and open them when you're feeling down.

Bracelets holder

You can use it as a jewellery display. It will help you keep organised and it looks nice.

Fake flowers

Just insert some fake flowers in the bottle and you've got a pretty decoration. If you have tiger stores in your town, you can actually buy some pens that look like flowers, like the brightest one in my photo.

They don't really require any extra explanations, so I hope the photos were enough to give you some ideas.

Question of the Day

Do you feel the need to keep all your bottles? If so, what do you do with them?

23 August 2014

I'm a big fan of lists. I'm always making lists of just anything, and wishlists are the easiest ones for me, because I always want a lot of things. I'll be moving to Belgium in less than a month (OMG) and these are some of the things I want right now:

1. White heart cushion (Primark)

I am absolutely in love with this heart. I have the classical one from Ikea, but this... omg! It's so pretty! I really want it for my room.

In Belgium, I will rent a bike for the year, because that's what everyone uses to move around. I saw these at tiger and I loved them! I actually saw some star-shaped ones (but they didn't have the photo on the website) and I knew I needed them inmediately.

This allows you to cook a lot of meals in a healthy way, in the microwave. I think this would be perfect for me, since I can't cook, cause it makes it really easy and you only have one thing to clean afterwards.

I love Lapdesks. I have one at home, but I don't really want to take it in my suitcase cause it takes a lot of space. This one is super pretty and I love the fact you can also store things inside. And it would allow me to hold my iPad!

Even though I wouldn't use it as a Candle Holder, I really want this. It's sooooo pretty and you can use it for many things. I have a larger one at the moment and I use it to display my earrings and I keep a few mini perfumes inside. I think I would use it as a pencil holder, as a beautiful pencil holder.

Question of the day

18 August 2014

I have a short of bad news today. If you didn't notice, summer is coming to an end, and Makeover Mondays were only meant to last for the summer, which means... they're coming to an end too. In fact, this week I'm doing the last makeover of the summer, who was chosen from last week's comments, so... there are no more chances to enter, sorry.

I felt so bad that I couldn't do more makeovers for all of you that I decided to do something crazy last week and I did... TWO makeovers. And it was insane. I can barely keep with one makeover a week. Two was totally exhausting...

So even though I couldn't give everyone their makeover, I do think I did all I could, so I hope you understand and you still liked this idea. And now... let's move on to this week's makeovers!

Basically alice

The first person I chose was Alice of Basically Alice. I knew Alice from Instagram and she's a really sweet girl with a great taste, so when she said she wanted to start blogging I was totally in. This is the description she left:

Hey, my name is alice and my blog name at the moment is @pastel_bows with the URL http://pastelbowss.blogspot.co.uk, however I might change this as they cannot be the same. I've only just started my blog so I haven't posted anything yet but in the future I will be posting things including fashion, beauty, photography, food and lifestyle. Your designs are absolutely amazing, I would love to win the makeover as at the moment my blog doesn't look good enough to post anything. I feel by having a blog it could help me escape from the world for a bit and hopefully give advice to other people who may read my blog:)xxx

This is what her blog looked like:

And this is what we came up with:

Broomfie

The second person I chose was Rachel of Broomfie. This is the description she left:

Hi, my blog is Broomfie (www.broomfie.blogspot.com) and is mainly concerned with my move from the UK to Vancouver in a few weeks. I'll hopefully be travelling quite a bit, but in the mean time I'm posting about what travelling I am doing now, beauty, fashion and quite a bit about books!

I would love to win the make-over because, plainly, I cannot make any sense of html and other coding. It took me all evening to figure out how to get my photos without a white border! I have been putting so much effort into my blog since I started it 3 weeks ago but I really feel like it's my layout that is holding me back. It's the sort of style I want but it's really not quite right. It doesn't look too professional in my opinion but I don't know what else to do! Your designs (that I have seen) are much more like I want and I really, really wish you could be lovely and help me out (please, please, please!)

Rachel wanted a simple black & white template. If you've been reading every post you may know by now how much I (don't) love doing these because they're so tricky and hard. So doing 2 designs at the same time became extra challenging because they were super different from each other and super different from what I usually do. But I must admit I'm pretty satisfied with the result...

15 August 2014

When you travel, you want to take some makeup with you that doesn't take a lot of space, that's not very expensive (you don't want to be upset if you lose it, or forget it), and that lasts all day on your face.

I have finally managed to find the perfect makeup products for this. Trust me, I'm from Spain, and this makeup will definitely resist anything. It's water-proof/heat-proof/melt-proof/Spain-proof.

Rimmel's Stay Matte Primer *
To be honest, this isn't completely necessary, but if you have room in your bag, I totally recommend bringing this.

Maybelline's Dream Pure BB Cream*
Maybelline's are my favorite BB creams. I cannot live without them. They are what helps me look like a human, instead of a zombie. One of my favorite products ever.

Rimmel's Stay Matte Powder*
This is my favorite face powder. I love how it feels, and it works amazingly.

* As you can see, I use a few mattifying products. I wouldn't be able to judge the mattifying power of each of them separately, but my face has been incredibly matte since I use the three of them together. I sometimes get home after a long ride in the subway and I feel my face all sweaty and disgusting, and then look in the mirror and you can't even tell. At all. So as I said, I don't know if one of them is amazing and the rest don't do anything, but I do know that by using the three of them... you get amazing results.

Maybelline's Color Tattoo Cream Eyeshadow: Pink Gold
I love Color Tattoos eye shadows for many reasons: they are incredibly long-lasting, they are pigmented, and you don't need any brushes to use them. I love this shade for the summer.

If you don't trust me on how good they are, I remember I wore this to a theme park last summer. We were out all day, and it rained sooo much. We were soaking wet and when I got home I was so tired that I just went to bed without removing my makeup. And when I woke up the next day... this was still on my eyelids!!

Maybelline's Colossal Volume Waterproof Mascara
Maybelline's Colossal Volume is my favorite mascara in the whole world. I use the waterproof version in the summer because it's incredibly hot in Spain and I want it to be able to resist any sweating. This mascara will give me amazing eyelashes and will last all day.

Sephora's Khol waterproof eye pencilMaria spent some time at my house last year. We went to sephora one day and they had these on sale, so she bought one. I loved it! So I had to get one for myself too! I can't believe what a good deal we got for just 5€. It lasts all day, it resists everything and it is SUPER pigmented.

Maybelline's baby lips: Strike a rose
I love baby lips. They have done miracles to my lips. Ok, this won't last all day, but you can keep it in your bag and put more on when you need to. I've been loving this shade this summer. It's like a bright beautiful pink, and it smells so yummy.

Maybelline's Dream Touch Cream Brush
This brush is super long-lasting too. It may not last 24 hours like the other products, but it's the best I have tried and I love it. I use the shade 05, but my skin is super pale, so you may need a different shade.

Question of the Day

11 August 2014

Last week's winner was Cristy of Cristy Jade Lydia, and this is what her blog looked like:

She has an absolutely gorgeous blog. I'm so jealous of her photography skills, so if there was anyone who really deserved the makeover, that was her. This was the description she left:

Hello, my name is Cristy and my blog is called Cristy Jade Lydia and I recently started blogging more frequently. I have Had my blog for about a year now but was never happy with it and didnt post frequently, but now i post about all things beauty, fashion and lifestyle. I really enjoy blogging and have found that its a great hobby of mine. i would love to win the blog make over because Im never fully happy with how i design my blog because im not very good with all this designing malarcy, and would love to have my blog looking fab like all the other winners.

I fell in love with her blog as I was doing the makeover and all I could think was "why wasn't I following her?", so I'm seriously telling you: you have to check out her blog!

Do you want to win next week's makeover?

Rules

You must be a blogger user. I don't know how to design anything for wordpress or any other blogging platforms... Sorry.

I will contact the winner on Monday, and you have 24 hours to reply to that email.

If you don't, I will choose someone else.

All the designs will include a little credit (it will be small, I promise) that you cannot remove.

I only have one week to work on the design.

I won't just copy someone's template. When I used tumblr, I remember being asked to make a theme like the one some other user had. Please don't ask me to do this. You can send me blog designs you like for inspiration, or you can tell me you like certain elements in their designs, but please don't ask me to completely copy the whole template.

Please do not enter if you are going to unfollow me afterwards, or if you won't use the template.

10 August 2014

I was cleaning my room right before and found a bag of foam stickers, and I've been trying to hold myself from doing a lot of DIYs since I'm going to Belgium soon and I won't be able to take them with me but... I couldn't this time, so I did this.

I was actually going to post something else tonight but I really liked how this turned out so... the other post will have to wait.

I used to have a heart-shaped collage on my wall, but I recently decided to take it down because it started having so many gaps that it didn't make sense any more, so I had a lot of polaroid-sized photos lying around, a lot of foam stickers, and a lot of mini clothespins... so there was no way I could continue cleaning without doing this first.

You will need

Foam stickers (or just use felt and cut it into whichever shape you want)

Mini clothespins

Thread

I started off by finding 3 hearts in different colors, and then looking for 3 identical hearts to pair them with.

My clothespins also had like mini hearts. I put one foam heart between each pair of clothespins. I only used 4 clothespins and 3 foam hearts because I didn't want it to be very long (and it actually turned out quite longer than I expected it too).

Place your photos by the clothespins to see how far apart from one another they would be.

Get your thread and calculate how long you need to cut it. I held the roll on one hand and the end on the other hand and just opened my arms, and that's the length I used.

To make sure the heart of the thread was indeed the center of the garland, I folded the thread in 2 halves to find the middle, and placed the middle foam heart there.

Then, I placed one of the other foam hearts at the distance I considered appropriate, and folded the thread again to make sure the other heart was at the same distance from the center.

Then just pin your mini clothespins with your photos and you're done!

I think this is a really cute decoration and it would also be an adorable gift for a friend. I will definitely be hanging one of these at my room in Belgium.

Question of the day

Do you print your photos? Or do you just keep them in your phone and computer.

08 August 2014

Today's post was written by Lauren, of Daisy Drops. I have mentioned her on my blog so many times, so I'm sure you already know this, but I absolutely adore Lauren and her blog, so if you're not following her, you totally should. I personally think Lauren has a gift for makeup, so I'm sure you're going to enjoy this tutorial as much as I did.

Super Quick, Easy and Affordable Dramatic Eye Look

I often find myself rushing my make up when I'm getting ready for a big occasion (such as my cousins wedding) so I end up not being happy with the end look. I've been experimenting with ways to speed up the getting ready process so that it is as stress free as possible. I'm a huge fan of eye make up, I feel like it can completely alter your overall make up look, so I've found a way to create the dramatic eye make up I love in under 10 minutes.

It's super quick, easy and affordable as you only use 3 products and 1 brush. The 3 products I used are the Maybelline Colour Tattoo in On & On Bronze, L'Oreal Superliner Perfect Slim and Maybelline Falsies Mascara. To apply the eyeshadow I used the Real Techniques Base Shadow Brush which comes in the Starter Kit.

To create the dramatic end to the eyeshadow you're going to want to use tape, this is an optional step but I think it gives the best results. Since the colour tattoo is cream based, a primer isn't essential as cream based shadows tend to last long on the lid anyway, but if you want to use a primer you can.

So to create this look you're going to want to apply the Colour Tattoo using the Base Shadow Brush. I like to pat it on and keep building it up until I get the desired effect, then I blend it using my fingers and remove any shadow from places I don't want it to be using a cotton bud. You then want to apply liquid liner just above the upper lash line and wing it out, I use the L'Oreal Superliner as it is really easy to use since the tip is super thin. This takes quite a lot of practice (I'm still not very good at it) so be patient. Finally, you want to apply mascara, I love the Maybelline Falsies Mascara as it makes my lashes extremely long and voluminous. You can add false lashes if you want too, but I'm so bad at applying them so I just use mascara.

As you can tell this is quite easy to do and is super quick, so is great for when you're in a rush to leave the house. All the products I used are drugstore products, so it's also a really affordable look.

I hope you like this dramatic eye make up look. What products do you use when you're in a rush? Share them in the comments below.

07 August 2014

Today I'm posting a very different blog. It's very personal, and I may end up deleting it, but I really need to vent myself, and when you have a blog, well… you have the perfect way to do it.

Today I want to tell you a story. A story about a girl I mentioned a few times on this blog, but the story I'm going to share today is a bit different from those posts. That girl is called Maria, and Maria has been the best best friend I've had in my entire life, but last week that friendship came to an end.

I'm not going to lie to you. I was feeling really down. I could barely eat, I could barely sleep, I felt sick… I didn't care about anything so when my stomach screamed for food I would just ignore it. I even cut my hair quite a lot, because… as I was saying… I just didn't care.

But last weekend I decided to do something that changed my whole vision about this. I read The Little Prince. Again. If you follow me on twitter, I'm sure you already know because I quoted like half of the book there. And I want to share a piece of that book with you, but I warn you, you have to open your mind to understand it, because otherwise… it will make no sense.

"What does that mean--'tame'?"

"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. It means to establish ties."

"'To establish ties'?"

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . ."

(...)

"I am a little bored. But if you tame me, it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall know the sound of a step that will be different from all the others. Other steps send me hurrying back underneath the ground. Yours will call me, like music, out of my burrow. And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the color of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat . . ."

(...)

So the little prince tamed the fox. And when the hour of his departure drew near--

"Ah," said the fox, "I shall cry."

"It is your own fault," said the little prince. "I never wished you any sort of harm; but you wanted me to tame you . . ."

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"But now you are going to cry!" said the little prince.

"Yes, that is so," said the fox.

"Then it has done you no good at all!"

"It has done me good," said the fox, "because of the color of the wheat fields."

I named this post "À cause de la couleur du blé", which means "because of the color of the wheat fields". And re-reading this book changed everything. I realized that as much as I might miss her, and as much I might wish things were just the way they were with her, I still have the color of the wheat fields.

Until this Saturday, I was devastated because I couldn't get her out of my thoughts, my memories or my life. But of course I can't, because I am not meant to. I said she was the best best friend I had, and that's what she was. So now, when I think of her, I'm just glad and happy that she was my friend once, and that she let me be a part of her life. And yes, I still love her and I still care about her, and I'm not going to try to change that any more, because we don't have enough of those feelings in this world. So instead of crying because she's not my friend, I'll just smile because she once was. Instead of getting sad when I see a picture of her, I'll remember the moment we shared, and enjoy the memory, and be grateful it happened.

And I guess the aim of this post is not only to vent myself, but to also make sure that if any of you are going through something similar too, maybe this will open your eyes as the book opened mine.

And if you did actually read all of this post, I really have to thank you for doing so. And I hope you didn't mind this little off-topic post.

04 August 2014

It's Monday again! Also known as... Makeover Mondays. You know I like to post this in the morning, but I'm very sorry, I couldn't. I was out for the weekend and couldn't do anything for my blog. This also meant I didn't have all the time I wanted to have for the template, so I'm making a little change on this week rules (since I'll be out next weekend again): I'll contact the winner of this week's makeover ON SATURDAY. I'm doing this so I can give your blog the time it deserves so I hope you're ok with it.

But now... moving on to what I did last week... last week's winner was Ann or Madam Ann, and this is the description she left:

my blog is called "madam ann" and it is about beauty and fashion stuff. I mostly do reviews because I love sharing my experiences and might help someone because I think reviews are really helpful. I'm quite new to the blogger world but I already start to step out of my comfort zone! I'd like to win the makeover because, well, I have no talent when it comes to design my blog. I would have ideas but I have no idea how to create everything the way I want so it would be amazing if you (and I see from the pictures that you have a lot of talent!) could make a nice design for me :)

Do you want to win next week's makeover?

Rules

You must be a blogger user. I don't know how to design anything for wordpress or any other blogging platforms... Sorry.

I will contact the winner on Saturday, and you have 24 hours to reply to that email.

If you don't, I will choose someone else.

All the designs will include a little credit (it will be small, I promise) that you cannot remove.

I only have one week to work on the design.

I won't just copy someone's template. When I used tumblr, I remember being asked to make a theme like the one some other user had. Please don't ask me to do this. You can send me blog designs you like for inspiration, or you can tell me you like certain elements in their designs, but please don't ask me to completely copy the whole template.

Please do not enter if you are going to unfollow me afterwards, or if you won't use the template.

03 August 2014

It feels like summer just started, but for some people it is actually coming to an end already. I can't believe people are already doing back to top posts/videos I decided to do one too for those of you who unfortunately are preparing everything to go back to school now... (I'm so sorry for you)

You'll need:

A frame

Washi tape / scrapbook paper / fabric

A whiteboard marker to write on it

Start by taking the picture of the picture frame. Then, decide what you want it to look like on the inside. I decided to use washi tape (which I regretted after the first 2 stripes) but you could also use scrapbook paper, or even a nice fabric.

Since I went with washi tape, I had to paste it to something, so I used the same photo that came with the frame, and I pasted my washi tape to the white side of it.

Then simply insert it inside the frame as if it was a normal photo and... it's ready to be used as a whiteboard now!

Question of the Day

01 August 2014

I couldn't do my instadiaries last month because I was in Belgium, so I'm showing you all I posted in instagram in the last 2 months today (which wasn't much either, to be honest).

June 2nd: Nails of that day. I borrowed my sister's nail polishes and I really liked the colors.

June 14th: I baked this cake for my cousin's birthday. You can read the whole post about it here.

June 25: Studying. All I did for like 2 months.

June 26: I had an interview for my internship the day before, I think, and this was the lipstick I used. I didn't even remember I had it, and I absolutely love the color. I can't believe I had forgotten about it.

June 26: My aunt came for lunch and I made her these chocolate volcanos for dessert. You can read the whole post here.

July 4: My breakfast in the hostel I was staying in in Belgium.

July 4: Enjoying a white chocolate drink from Godiva in Belgium.

July 6: We were just going to try some Belgian got chocolate… and I ended up eating all of this and leaving the hot chocolate. Oops!

July 20: My baby lips collection. Actually, no. These aren't all the baby lips I have. I think I have a problem...

July 25: OPI had a promotion. They had all their classic nail polishes with a 15% discount, and with any purchase, you got a free manicure and a coca-cola, so we went get our manicures. They also gave us a free mini OPI because we had to wait a lot of time. I'm one of the pink hands.

July 26: It was a miracle. I had almost the whole weekend off to work on my blog. And I'm happy to say it was a pretty productive weekend.

July 29: Little things I bought the previous weekend.

July 30: The first things I bought for my room in Belgium next year. I'm going to have the nicest room in the country hehe

UPDATE - 7 Aug 2014

There is one photo I didn't include in this collage. Well, I did at first, but I then deleted it, and the description that I was meant to give was:

July 13: My best friend Maria came to spend a couple of days at my house. She's crazy but I couldn't love her more!

The reason why I deleted it was because we're no longer friends any more, but the truth is... I shouldn't have deleted it. Because it happened. And I'm so glad it did because I loved it and I love her. Even if we're not friends any more.